


Someone You Loved

by catrasadoras



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Catra (She-Ra) Redemption, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Enemies, Friends to Enemies to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort, POV Adora (She-Ra), Sleepy Cuddles, catradora
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-12
Updated: 2019-07-19
Packaged: 2020-06-27 06:04:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 16,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19784767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catrasadoras/pseuds/catrasadoras
Summary: Adora reaches out to her, hoping to make contact with her where words were failing, but, quicker than Adora can blink, Catra's hand catches her wrist, her claws digging into the skin, not too deep but enough to at least break it, at least she hadn’t lost her speed.Catra freezes as soon as she makes contact with Adora's wrist, she stares at it, dumbfounded, before looking up to meet the pool of blue that were Adora's eyes. "I- you- Adora?"Or, Adora finds Catra in the Whispering Woods after she escapes Hordak. Post Season 2.





	1. Atlantis

**Author's Note:**

> This started out as a personal piece I was just writing in my spare time but I had a lot of fun with it and figured I'd share it on here. The title is inspired by the song Someone You Loved by Lewis Capaldi and the chapter title is inspired by the song Atlantis by Seafret. There will be another chapter to follow onto this one, I had intended for it to be only a one shot but decided to make it a two shot because I wanted to see where I could take this. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Please feel free to leave any comments/kudos, I would be eternally grateful.

Adora was lost. It didn’t take much to get lost in the whispering woods but somehow it always seemed to work itself out, she had like a sixth sense which put her on the right path no matter what and she just got to wherever she needed to be. Not today. She had been walking in circles for what felt like hours. She stares accusingly at the rock she’d marked with her sword on her last attempt as though it was personally responsible for her being lost. Yep, definitely going in circles. "Stay calm Adora, you've been in far stickier situations than this." True for the record. "Even though these woods are totally creepy." The longer you spend in the Whispering Woods the creepier they got. Adora wished Swift Wind was with her so she could just fly out of this place but he’d stayed behind at Bright Moon today and Adora had trained solo. 

"You know woods, you're great but I'd really like to go home now." Adora gets nothing in response, obviously, she’d be worried if she had, other than wind whistling around her. "Great, now I'm talking to trees. How long have I- _whoa_ !" Adora's words are abruptly cut off as her feet hit something sticking up from the ground. She falls, quite ungracefully, onto her face, her wrists sting as they take the brunt of her fall, it was quite embarrassing if she was honest, she was glad no one was around to see her flop to the ground so hard. “Oww...” She groans rubbing her head at the pain. She’d been going in circles for hours and not managed to do _that,_ the woods were really out to get her today. At least she was alone and no one had been around to see it. 

“What was that?” Adora tuns to see what it was that she had tripped over. At first Adora was confused, she thought she’d fallen through a time portal or had woken from a dream and was now sitting up in her bunk bed back in the Horde because huddled just a few inches from where Adora had tripped was... “Catra?” She didn’t reply, in fact, if her chest hadn’t been rising and falling as it was Adora would have assumed that she was dead. Even wrapped in a tight ball on the ground Adora could tell Catra had been involved in some kind of fight, one she hadn’t fared too well in. 

Adora crawls over to her and places her hand on Catra’s arm, she frowns at how abnormally cold she was, normally Catra was warm, _always_ , but not right now. She shakes the catgirl, hoping to wake her up, but Catra makes no move or sound of even acknowledging the touch. Adora pulls Catra so she was on her back, rather than curled into a ball, the girl moves so easily it was slightly concerning, never had Adora seen Catra so out of it, something was terribly wrong. 

As soon as her eyes landed on Catra’s face she hears a gasp leave her lips. There was a scar starting just above Catra’s eyebrow down her eye and down a good portion of her cheek, like someone had scraped a claw down her face, or knife Adora gusses. Perhaps scar was too strong a word, it was still pretty fresh, it wasn’t bleeding but it also wasn’t far along in the healing stages, it would clearly leave a scar as soon as it did heal however. 

Adora instinctively places her hands either side of Catra’s face, cupping it in her hands, she didn’t remember telling her hands to do that they just kind of did. Catra didn’t react she was still sound asleep. Examining her further caused Adora’s brow to furrow even further in concern, Catra’s fur was filthy and matted in places where it had been stained with blood, _her_ blood, it looked like she was littered with wounds, some were small and insignificant but others were like large gashes, aside from the wound on her face, Adora spotted a large one across her stomach, which was definitely the most concerning to Adora as it appeared to still be bleeding, and she had three deep gashes on her right side. Her Horde uniform was in tatters where the wounds were, it looked like she’d gotten into a fight with something angry and with large talons. 

Whatever had happened, Adora knew she couldn’t leave her here. Part of Adora wondered if perhaps the woods had been leading her to Catra all these hours, like she hadn’t been able to leave because Catra was here and she needed help. Adora places her hand beneath Catra’s legs and pulls her closer, despite her condition, Catra’s pulse was strong, albeit a little faster than normal, she places another hand on Catra’s back and brings her to her chest before pushing up onto her feet. 

Catra moves for the first time since Adora had found her, she snuggles closer to Adora's chest but, mostly, she remains unmoving and limp which was not good. Catra wasn’t heavy, she never has been, it’s part of why she’s so fast and agile and why Adora had never minded when she pounced on her, it was a familiar weight and Adora could carry her with ease. 

Adora begins her trek through the woods hoping she wouldn't get turned around again. It was a peculiar feeling having the weight of the Sword of Protection on her back and the weight of Catra in her arms, she’d never thought she'd experience both at the same time, especially after what happened the last time they had met, part of Adora had thought they'd always stay on opposite sides of a war, fated to be bitter enemies until one of them bit the dust, so to speak. She had wanted nothing more than for Catra to leave the Horde and join the rebellion, she wanted her best friend back, she didn’t want to fight Catra anymore than she wanted to fight Glimmer, but Catra had other ideas. Adora was angry with her, it was hard not to be after she'd left her to die in the Crystal Castle, assaulted Bright Moon and infected She-Ra with a virus that almost made Adora kill everyone she holds dear. Well, Adora had little room for forgiveness at this point but, also, she just couldn't not help Catra and, looking at her now in her arms, Adora felt her heart contract in pain but also, and she hates herself for it but, love. She loves Catra. She never wanted to fight with her, never, but circumstances dictated otherwise. 

Adora makes quick time through the Whispering Woods and breathes a sigh of relief when she doesn’t loop back around to see the rock she'd marked with her sword - she could also hear the sound of water nearby confirming that she was in fact making progress. The woods were quiet, as they always were, save for the sound of the whispering wind through the trees and the running water of course. Despite their often creepiness, the woods were also kind of peaceful, the perfect place to get away from it all. Which was why Adora startles so much when a high pitched screech cuts through the air. _"AHHHHH!"_ There's a sharp movement in her arms and Adora sees canines flashing at her. Adora too screams in alarm at the suddenness of it all, she loses her footing on some roots and trips sending Catra flying out of her arms and both of them crashing to the ground. This was the second time Adora found herself eating dirt. She knew she had a tendency to be clumsy, at least as Adora, but this was kind of ridiculous if not embarrassing. How would the princesses feel about seeing She-Ra, The Princess of Power, trip over her own feet? She imagines it would've been a lot harder to convince them to join the alliance. 

Adora sits up and glances towards where she'd launched Catra, the woman was in a fetal position, whining and yelling in pain which woke Adora right up. As though she wasn’t severely lacking in coordination, Adora was back on her feet and kneeling in front of Catra in seconds. "Catra?" Adora asks, her brow creases in concern and only deepens when the cat girl glances at her and hisses, either in annoyance or anger Adora isn't sure. Adora reaches out to her, hoping to make contact with her where words were failing, but, quicker than Adora can blink, Catra's hand catches her wrist, her claws digging into the skin, not too deep but enough to at least break it, at least she hadn’t lost her speed. 

Catra freezes as soon as she makes contact with Adora's wrist, she stares at it, dumbfounded, before looking up to meet the pool of blue that were Adora's eyes. "I- you- Adora?" Catra asks and Adora would have found this very endearing had she not been completely concerned and focused on Catra's well being. "You're really here?" Catra's claws retract so that it’s only just her fingers wrapped around Adora's wrist. Part of Adora wants to just say ‘Duh’ but that seems wildly inappropriate and hurtful considering how injured Catra is and also the disbelief she had at seeing Adora actually there . 

"How did you think you were moving? You thought you were just floating through the forest?" Adora asks. She smiles at Catra then, a big goofy grin, one she used to use whenever she made a bad joke, well, a good joke but a bad joke in Catra's eyes, exactly on cue Catra scoffs and rolls her eyes. She releases Adora's hand and scoots backwards so she’s leaning against a tree. 

She looks drowsy, like she’s not completely there, her tail flicks a couple of times before it settles like dead weight, she was clearly _not_ okay but Catra was acting like she wasn't half dead. "Catra," Adora moves so she’s next to Catra, dropping so she’s eye level. Catra watches her lazily, which is not like her at all, normally she’s alert, always, _always_ , aware. "what happened?" She huffs at the question and does something Adora least expects: she reaches her hand out and cups Adora's jaw, running her thumb along her jawline, Adora freezes at first before sighing and leaning into the warm touch of Catra's hand. 

"I'm not sure you're really here," Catra says and Adora's eyes flicked open - she hadn't even been aware she’d closed them. Catra looks pained, like she wished deeply that Adora was there but she couldn't believe it. "I'm going to sleep now." Catra says, withdrawing her hand. She slumps against the tree and her tail curls up, her breathing evens out immediately, she’d passed out so quickly. For the most part, Catra was a light sleeper, so when Adora shook her and she didn’t wake she was seriously concerned. Catra was out cold, Adora could attempt to move her again but she thought maybe she should at least attempt to heal Catra's wounds a little before she attempted anything like that again - especially if it would result in her tripping and falling again. 

The sound of rushing water comes back to Adora's senses, fresh water would really work a treat, Adora had a little but, well, Catra needed more. She couldn't move the feline but she also didn’t want to leave her, she might get lost again which would not be good. That's when Adora remembers her sword strapped to her back, she unsheathes it and plunges it into the ground so it’s sitting next to Catra. Adora rises to her feet, she hesitates briefly, but it was unlikely Catra was going anywhere in that state, and she had to do something about her wounds. Adora heads towards the stream, sparing one last glance at her sleeping ex-best friend. 

Finding the stream was relatively easy, Adora just followed her ears, but what was unnerving was the darkening of the sky when night fell, it seemed to fall so much faster in the Whispering Woods, she knew if she didn’t return soon then Bow and Glimmer would be hysterical with worry but she couldn't exactly return either, if she did she would never find Catra again in the dense woods and, plus, she couldn't leave Catra anyway. There was the option to take her to Bright Moon, which seemed to be the right idea to Adora, but something about that sat unpleasantly in her gut, especially with Catra unable to tell her what she thought about that, instead she'd just have to take care of Catra in the woods until she was conscious enough to tell Adora what she wanted to do. 

Adora drops by the stream's edge, unscrewing the lid on her canteen, she fills it up and fastens it back in place. She does the same with her other canteens before placing them into her pack that Bow had given her that morning, the bag also had snacks and some basic medical supplies, Glimmer and Bow were always so concerned and sweet, if she didn’t have this pack right now Adora would've been well and truly screwed in patching Catra up. Once she's satisfied she has enough water, Adora stands and walks back into the woods feeling the familiar pull she felt of her sword, Light Hope had told her once that she was connected to the sword, it was meant for her, it meant that Adora always felt its presence wherever it may be. 

When she gets back to where she’d taken her ungraceful tumble, she sees the Sword of Protection planted exactly where she’d put it, it was giving off a soft glow that lit up the quickly darkening woods. Catra was still slumped against the tree fast asleep, the only sign of her being alive was the rise and fall of her chest. 

Adora kneels by Catra's side and pulls her supplies from her bag before she turns her attention back to Catra. She begins working on the wounds, dampening some fabric she had in her pack with the water she had collected in order to clean the wounds, Adora could tell whenever her gentle touch was too hard as Catra’s tail would curl and she’d wince even when asleep, so she adjusted whenever that happened. The more Adora worked on the feline the more she became concerned, and she was already pretty concerned, despite everything Adora never wanted to see Catra like this. She pauses when she goes to dab at the scar down Catra’s face before gently cleaning it, even her thick mane of hair was sticky and matted with blood, she cleans Catra as best she can, by the end of it the white fabric is so stained with blood it’s the colour of Adora’s jacket. 

She pulls some of the medicine she had with her out next, a sort of paste that would help prevent infection made by Perfuma. Adora knew from experience that the paste stung badly, there was no way Adora could apply it without waking the sleeping girl, the only bright side, at least for Catra, was that she didn’t have that much, which meant Adora could only use a little and on certain wounds which absolutely needed it, unfortunately for Catra, one of those wounds was definitely the one running down her face. 

While Adora was debating what she should do she was momentarily distracted by the sudden swishing of Catra’s tail and when she focuses on the woman she was definitely breathing more heavily, her head twitching, before Adora could start to panic she heard Catra speak which froze her to the spot. “No… no… _No_!” Catra wakes so suddenly, panting for breath, her eyes are like needles, her claws are extended and she grabs at whatever is in front of her. Unfortunately for Adora, that was her.

Catra pounces on her, knocking them into a tumble, Adora manages a squeak in surprise while Catra hisses at her and swipes with her sharp claws, Adora only just manages to dodge them though Catra lands a swipe to her cheek that draws some blood, not enough for it to be concerning however. They stop rolling and Catra lands on top of Adora, drawing her hand back ready to strike. Adora has never seen Catra this afraid, not since they were kids and Shadow Weaver had caught them snooping around in her room. 

Adora’s eyes widen and she throws her hands up in surrender. “Wait!” Adora yells and Catra pauses momentarily, some confusion flooding her eyes. “Catra! It’s me! Adora!” Her chest heaves and she still looks shocked but her hand doesn’t move from it’s position, which Adora supposes is a good thing, the last thing she needed was to get clawed to death by her ex-best friend who she’d been patching up. “It’s me.” At those two words Catra seems to snap back to reality, her panic and fear is replaced by a face of indifference and her brows draw together in a frown, but she lowers her hand, retracting her claws, though she makes no move to get up from Adora who she was effectively pinning, Adora was lying in the soft grass of the woods while Catra sat on her stomach, her legs bent beside Adora, straddling her hips basically, Adora blushes a little at the realisation of being pinned beneath Catra. 

“Hey Adora.” Catra says cooly, her look of indifference and frown gone, replaced with her characteristic smirk. Adora finds that so infuriating. She leans up, using her arms for support, though she remains pinned beneath Catra she still manages to get closer to the woman, she huffs at the feline’s greeting, as though Catra hadn’t just attacked her so frightened of… s _omething_. God was it infuriating. “Fancy meeting you here Princess.” She says, planting her un-clawed hands onto Adora’s abdomen, Adora stares at them for a moment before she glares up at Catra. 

  


“Seriously?” Adora asks, trying to not let her frustration show but she’s not very successful. “ _Hey Adora_ ,” She mimics in a poor imitation of Catra. “I find you half dead in the woods and that’s all you have to say?” Catra rolls her eyes, though her tail is swishing from side to side telling Adora she’d struck a nerve, or brought something up that Catra didn’t want to talk about, go figure, she doesn’t want to talk, she never did anymore. “Your injuries are…” Adora trails off, her eyes settling on the large wound on Catra’s abdomen, ghosting over it ever so slightly. Catra jerks back out from her touch, rolling off of Adora, she gets to her feet, though she looks a little shaky on them. 

“Did you clean me up?” Catra asks, ignoring Adora’s original line of questioning. Adora gets to her feet too, dusting herself off. 

“Well, yeah.” Adora shrugs and Catra stares at her in a way that makes Adora’s stomach do flips. 

“I never asked you to do that!” Catra says and Adora realises she has her hands clenched at her sides. 

“Wait, are you mad at me?” Adora asks in disbelief. Catra lets out a grunt at Adora’s words, crossing her arms across her chest in a stance that Adora is sure is meant to be defiant but given Catra’s condition it didn’t come across that way at all. 

“You just had to try and save me again.” Catra says with a scoff, walking towards the tree she’d slumped against before, where Adora’s sword was currently planted. Adora jogs to catch up beside the woman. 

“Did you want me to leave you?” Adora asks, she feels a ball of red hot anger simmer in her, Catra was saying she always had to play the hero again, like she had said before, but what should she have done? Leaving Catra in that state… the thought made Adora’s stomach churn uncomfortably, she couldn’t have done that, she just wasn’t aware caring was such a bad crime. 

“Wouldn’t be the first time.” Catra mumbles and now it was Adora’s turn to clench her fists and get angry at Catra. “You could have taken me prisoner, or taken me out,” Catra points out which were valid points after all. “we’re enemies Adora, on opposite sides of a war, yet you have to save everyone don’t you?” Catra shakes her head and Adora glowers at her in annoyance. 

“I couldn't do that.” Adora says looking away from Catra as she said it. Catra stops in her tracks and she turns to face the blonde. 

“Why not? I would’ve.” Catra shrugs with indifference again. 

“Yeah, well, you work for the Horde, that’s not how we do things.” 

“Ugh!” Catra says, her face scrunching up in disgust, she leans against the tree again. She looks like she’s in pain, Adora realises, as Catra sinks to the ground holding her stomach with her arm. She grumbles a little at the exertion and then seems to remember Adora was still there. “Well then?” Catra asks raising a brow. 

“What?” Adora asks defensively. She hated this, she hated that she could no longer figure Catra out, she hated that they couldn’t have a simple conversation without one of them getting defensive, or annoyed, at the other. She hated fighting Catra. 

Catra rolls her eyes and begins licking her arm sorrowfully which brings a small smile to Adora’s lips. “Were you planning on hauling me back to the rebellion?” Catra asks shifting her sitting position and wincing from pain as she does so. 

“I considered it.” Adora admits. She sits down across from Catra, crossing her legs beneath her, she collects the salve she’d dropped when Catra had pounced on her. “But it… didn’t feel right.” Catra looks at her then, she seems a little surprised at Adora’s words which Adora tries to not be offended at. 

“Wow, so you finally listened to me?” Catra asks, her words full of sarcasm. “Thank you so much Adora.” Adora frowns at the feline’s sarcasm. Adora always listened, Catra just didn’t like to admit that she listened, she _always_ listened to Catra. Adora may not fully understand why Catra wanted to remain in the Horde, why she didn’t want to join the rebellion and fight the injustice and atrocities of the Horde, but she did listen to Catra and she had told her she didn’t want to follow Adora, didn’t want to join the rebellion, so Adora hadn’t hauled her off to Bright Moon despite the fact as She-Ra Adora really should have, especially since Catra was Hordak’s second in command, she was basically aiding and abetting her biggest foe which the rebellion would surely look down on, but this was _Catra_ , Adora always had a weak spot when it came to Catra, no amount of fighting or arguments or whatever would change that. 

"Catra," Adora says and something in her voice must have changed because Catra actually looked her in the eyes. She looks tired. "what happened?" Catra remains quiet but Adora can tell she's thinking about what she should say - probably if she should be honest or deflect the question. 

"Honestly? Are you sure you want to know?" Catra questions and Adora considers that question. Did she want to know? The state Catra was in made her swallow hard, feeling some invisible lump form in her throat, did she want to know what made her that way? But, ultimately, Adora knew she had to know, not knowing was worse than knowing, or maybe not, ignorance is bliss and all, but, well, she was here now. Adora nods indicating for Catra to go on. 

“Well, it all started when Shadow Weaver escaped-” 

“Shadow Weaver what?!” Adora leaps to her feet, ready to go for her sword, suddenly the perfectly innocent shadows of the nearby trees seemed threatening, the only thing that stops Adora actually arming herself with the Sword of Protection is Catra’s snort. 

“Trust me, I didn’t want her to escape anymore than you did Princess,” Catra says and weirdly it relaxes Adora somewhat, she isn’t alone here, in fact, she might be with the one other person who knew Shadow Weaver’s games just as much as she did, Catra had, after all, defeated her once, Adora too, if she came for them she’d have a fight on her hands. 

“She played me.” Catra’s voice sounds bitter, betrayed, Adora didn’t know exactly what had happened but she had a pretty good idea. Shadow Weaver had raised them, she knew their weaknesses more than anyone else, she knew exactly how to manipulate them into doing whatever she desired and all the while making you think you were actually doing something for yourself or in service of some good outcome - that rarely happened with Shadow Weaver. 

“So stupid,” Catra scolds herself, blowing a curl of her mane that had landed just below the frame of her mask. “then I thought I could lie to Hordak about it.” Adora winces at that. She’d been in Hordak’s presence only once or twice, whenever Shadow Weaver wanted to parade around her prized pony, then Adora had been honoured, now it left a sour taste in her mouth. She was so blind to all the evils in the Horde. Hordak had been terrifying, the red of his eyes, the metal of his skin, he was frightening to say the least. 

“He... “ Catra goes unusually quiet, and her tail swishes nervously, she takes a sharp breath in, putting her hand up to her chest and suddenly Adora feels her own chest tightening in response, like someone had their hand around her neck. “He turned on this weird machine and sucked all the air out of the room, I blacked out and woke up in a cell.” Catra drops her hand, staring at the ground. “The wounds, some are from my escape, others I got in the cell, Scorpia told me Hordak was planning on sending me to Beast Island, she helped me escape, I hope- I hope she’s okay.” Catra bites her lip and Adora realises that Catra is genuinely concerned about Scorpia. She had briefly seen the pair after snapping out of her She-Ra sickness, Scorpia had protected Catra fiercely, she had no doubt that the white haired woman valued Catra’s friendship very highly but Catra, she’s always had a… difficult relationship with feelings, and making friends, so seeing her so concerned over someone who wasn’t Adora herself was a little surprising and, if Adora was being honest with herself, she felt a little weird about it. Dare she say jealous? “Entrapa too.” Catra adds. 

“You sound worried…” Adora says cautiously. Catra seems to snap out of her concerned state, becoming a mask of indifference once again, her tail stops it’s nervous swishing. 

“Yeah, well, try not to sound so surprised,” Catra retorts. “I actually care about my friends.” Adora narrows her eyes at that dig, she was certain Catra was trying to say something about the two of them, well, more specifically Adora. 

I care about my friends, _unlike you._

“I already told you Catra,” Adora says through gritted teeth. “I never wanted to leave you.” Catra scoffs, she had gone back to grooming herself. “I couldn’t go back to the Horde, I know you wanted me to come home-” 

"Did you ever think I meant home as in me!" Catra bursts, though she seems to regret it when she winces in pain, letting out a small yelp. 

"What? What do you mean? Catra..." Adora asks. She thought she maybe understood but something Adora had learnt was that whenever it came to Catra she couldn’t assume anything. 

"Look, the Horde's evil, I get it, you couldn't stay, but you left _me_. You didn't think to come back to save your best friend from the Horde's evil clutches?" Adora feels her chest tighten again, like before, but this time it felt different, more painful. She had abandoned Catra. Beyond asking Catra to come with her the first time, Adora hadn't gone after Catra to show her the realities of the Horde, to show Catra that she cared, and so Catra acted out, like she always did, Catra may not be good with emotions but they fuel everything she does. "It’s not like you're not capable enough, you came back and saved sparkles." Catra grumbles, looking away from Adora. 

"I..." Adora stumbles. She doesn’t even know how to finish that sentence. An apology? That wouldn't change the past, it wouldn't change anything, Adora had seen that first hand in the Crystal Castle, she’d tried to tell Catra that she missed her and never wanted to leave her, which was true, but Catra couldn't hear her. It was too late. Maybe justify her actions? But Adora didn’t even know she could do that. She believes wholeheartedly that leaving the Horde was the right thing to do, she can't regret that, but she could have tried harder to get through to Catra, she knows that too, they were best friends and she left her. Adora knew that's what hurt Catra the most: Adora leaving. 

_When you left, who do you think took the fall for you? Who was protecting me then?_

Adora hadn’t been there, she’d left Catra at the mercy of Shadow Weaver, it was just like if she hadn’t gone after Glimmer and left her in the Fright Zone, it sent a chill down Adora's spine just thinking about that. 

_Because, it doesn't matter what they do, the two of us look out for each other._

"Whatever," Catra's voice brings Adora out of her spiraling thoughts, the vice grip on her heart lessens slightly when she sees Catra is looking at her with something akin to understanding. “The past is the past.” 

“Wait, Catra, you get mad at me whenever I try to save you.” Adora puts air quotations around the word _‘save’_ because, honestly, that could mean anything with Catra - even telling her her shoelace was untied, if she ever wore shoes that was - it seemed unlikely she would react well to Adora coming to _‘save’_ her from the Horde’s evil clutches. “Plus I asked you to join me, that was your choice to make, if you get to be mad at the fact I chose the rebellion over you, I get to be mad at the fact that you chose the Horde over _me_ .” Catra’s tail swishes and her eyes narrow but she doesn’t make any comment on that fact - probably because it was true. Catra had every chance to leave the Horde and join the rebellion, in fact, Adora had always thought she would - _eventually_ \- but, as time went on, as Catra became more powerful and climbed the ranks higher and faster than any other cadet of her standing, the less likely that became. Catra liked being in the Horde, she liked that she had a position of power, she didn’t want to leave the Horde least of all for the golden girl who abandoned her and hurt her. 

“So,” Catra clears her throat slightly. “are you planning on putting that weird stuff on me?” Catra asks, her gaze falling to the salve that Adora was holding in her hand. Adora stares at it for a moment, the heavy atmosphere clearing a little, enough that Adora felt a little smirk tug at the corners of her lips. 

“What? Is the tongue not doing the job?” Adora asks playfully. Catra glares at her but there’s a twinkle in the mismatched pair, it’s more playful than it is menacing, it’s awfully familiar to Adora. 

“Oh, my tongue always gets the job done.” The way Catra says that makes Adora flush, she’s pretty certain her cheeks turn bright red, she certainly feels them heat up, plus Catra is smirking at her in the way that she always is. Adora decides not to reply to that but instead shuffles closer to Catra so that she may apply the medicine. Adora pauses, looking from the salve to Catra. 

"I'm not going to lie, this is gonna suck." Adora winced, remembering the sting of the salve when Perfuma had given her it for Adora's own injuries. 

"How do you know?" Catra questions. 

"I've had it before when my back-" Adora stops mid sentence. Catra didn’t know. After the Battle of Bright Moon, after Catra had dug her claws into the flesh of She-Ra, the wounds had stayed with Adora, that didn't happen normally, usually transforming healed her wounds but for some reason they didn’t, Adora still had those scars as a reminder of the bitter battle. 

Catra turns her head to the side in curiosity, probably wondering why Adora had suddenly stopped. "I thought you had magical healing powers?" Catra says it with a little bitterness ebbing her words, like she didn’t like remembering that Adora had an alter ego. 

"I do." Adora replies. 

"She-Ra heals?" Catra prods. 

"She does." Adora says, being perfectly cryptic. Catra seems to sense that Adora doesn’t want to continue that line of questioning because she picks her shirt up between her two fingers ready to roll it up so Adora can apply the salve more easily. 

Catra lifts her shirt, peeling it back slowly, almost hesitantly, and Adora has to avert her gaze momentarily, feeling her cheeks warm slightly at seeing so much exposed flesh - _Catra’s_ exposed flesh. Adora decides to focus on applying the salve, nothing else, schooling her expression into one of pure concentration, which breaks slightly when she hears Catra let out a breathy laugh. “What?” Adora asks defensively. 

“You look like you do when you’re planning a battle.” Catra replies cooly, her thumb raising and planting itself right between Adora’s forehead, rubbing the crease that had formed there in her concentration. Adora goes cross eyed trying to follow Catra’s thumb before she looks at the feline feeling a smile tug at her lips. She missed this. 

Catra retracts her hand and redirects her gaze after she held Adora’s for an intense moment. This was familiar, but something about it felt different, more charged than usual. “I’m going to apply this now.” Adora says, her voice cracking a little and she clears her throat. 

She wonders if Catra feels it too or if she’s on her own in this feeling. 

Catra just nods her consent and Adora plants her fingers into the salve, feeling its coolness bring a little more clarity back to her. She scoops it up, you didn’t need a lot, even with Catra’s deep wounds the salve she had in this little box could last Catra a week, if she was careful about it, and she’d be much more healed by the end of the week, but still, Adora hesitates. She knows this will hurt and despite, well, _everything_ she doesn’t want to hurt Catra - even if it is in her best interest. 

Adora goes for the abdomen wound first, she hesitates for one second before she puts her fingers to the wound, applying the salve, after just one touch Catra moves sharply and lets out a horrible yowl of pain. “Sorry! Sorry! I know it hurts-” 

“Son of a-!” Catra says, her eyes are wild and Adora can see pools of water gathering at the bottom of them. 

“I know it hurts,” Adora tries again. “but if we don’t do this then you could get an infection which would be significantly worse.” Catra nods. 

“Just,” She pants, breathing heavily from the pain. Adora feels a little bad if she’s honest. “give me a minute.” Catra unsheathes her claws and plants them into the ground beside her, she closes her eyes tightly and leans back against the tree for support. “Okay,” She says. “I’m ready.” Adora approaches the wound again but pauses just before she touches it. Catra never let anyone see her like this, the Horde discouraged showing any signs of weakness, so it’s not surprising, but even still, when either of them had gotten sick, or injured in the Horde they’d always come to each other for help, because they both knew they could trust each other to help them, even now, after everything that has happened to them, some part of Catra must still feel that way if she’s willing to let Adora patch her up. 

Catra cracks an eye open to look at the blonde who,Adora admits, is probably giving Catra a weird look. “What are you waiting for Princess?” Catra asks. “An invitation?” Adora rolls her eyes and goes to work once again, ignoring Catra’s remark. As soon as her fingers touch the wound Catra goes rigid, straightening her back painfully upright, her claws dug into the earth even deeper and Adora can see her grimacing at every application of the medicine. 

Adora makes quick work applying it to her stomach and side, where the especially deep wounds were, and then grabs some bandages she had to cover them up and prevent anything getting into them - the medicine worked only so much after all. The only wound left was the one on Catra’s face which Adora really didn’t want to have to do, if the wounds on her body hurt that much then the one on her face was gonna suck big time. 

Adora gets closer to Catra so she’s practically sitting in her lap and puts one hand on the woman’s jaw, her thumb landing on her cheek, Adora hears Catra’s breath catch and her eyes flutter open. “What…” Catra’s voice sounds especially husky all of a sudden and Adora is so close she can feel her breath on her face. “What are you doing?” She asks, eyeing Adora suspiciously. 

“Your face,” Adora says, swallowing thickly. “I have to put some on the one on your face.” 

“Oh.” Catra says and is it hot in here? Adora feels like she might be burning up. “Is it… bad?” She asks and Adora frowns at the question. 

“It’s pretty deep, definitely going to scar but it’s not that bad.” Adora reassures but Catra gives her a look. 

“That’s not what I meant Adora.” Catra responds, looking away from the blonde. “I meant,” Catra grumbles and shakes her head and Adora recognises it as Catra wanting to say something but being afraid to. “Is it bad, as in, ugly? Have I got a messed up face?” Adora does something really stupid then and cups Catra’s other cheek, forcing the woman to look at her, and Adora feels a sudden spark of something in her chest at seeing Catra so vulnerable. 

“God no Catra,” Adora says. “you’re beautiful.” And she is. She always has been. Catra looks at Adora hard with something that Adora can’t quite place but she seems to take Adora’s words to heart as she closes her eyes and nuzzles into Adora’s palms. It makes Adora’s heart rattle her ribcage and her lips to pull into a soft smile. She stays like that a moment before withdrawing one hand to get the salve. Catra gives a small nod in permission to tell Adora she was ready. Adora is oh so gentle and she grimaces whenever Catra winces at her touch but Catra manages through the pain, her claws still planted in the earth. 

When Adora is finished she holds that position for a moment, her breaths and Catra’s mingling in the space between them. Catra becomes less tense, removing her claws from the earth and she sighs contentedly. Adora clears her throat and let's Catra’s face go, she rises from where she had been sitting and notices Catra’s eyes open to follow her movements. 

“So, what will you do now?” Adora asks, wiping her hands on her pants to get rid of the excess salve that was on her hands. Adora had her back turned to Catra, she felt tense all of a sudden and she didn’t know exactly why, other than here, these past few moments shared with Catra, had been kind of… _nice_ and she wasn’t sure she wanted Catra to leave. 

“I have a choice?” Catra asks and Adora turns to look at her. The question rubbed Adora the wrong way but when she saw Catra that anger dissolved; she didn’t mean to irritate Adora with that question, as she so often did intend to get under Adora’s skin, she was actually genuinely curious. 

“Of course you do Catra,” Adora responds. “You always have.” It comes off a little more bitter than Adora had intended but, while she had made the choice to leave the Horde and join the rebellion, though Adora had a hard time believing there was ever really a choice in that decision, how could she have stayed with the Horde? Catra had made the choice to not join the Rebellion when Adora asked, she _chose_ to stay with the Horde, just as she now had to choose what she wanted to do: go with Adora, join the rebellion, stay in the woods, whatever she wanted really. 

“Let me go.” Catra says so softly that Adora almost misses it. 

“Catra…” Adora feels something sharp in her chest, it feels a little like disappointment, she had hoped that Catra would come with her, she didn’t even have to join the rebellion, just come back with her to Bright Moon, just _with her_ , but, Adora supposes, it was too good to be true. 

“I need to find out who I am outside of the Horde and, well, outside from you. I can't do that in Bright Moon, and I can't do that with you, I need to figure this out on my own." Catra says. She wraps her arms around her chest and looks at her feet. “I’m sorry Adora, I can’t join your Rebellion, not yet, maybe not ever. I’m not sure where I fit.” 

“You fit in with _me_.” Adora assures and she watches as Catra pushes herself to her feet. She seems a lot stronger now but still a little wobbly on her feet - luckily for Catra, her tail gives her excellent balance. 

“I know, but I need time.” Catra says. She steps closer to Adora so they were face to face again and Adora looks down at her feet. “I’ll come back to you, I always seem to find you no matter what.” Adora chuckles softly at that and notices Catra hugging herself again and shivering slightly. 

“You’re cold.” Adora states and she starts unzipping her jacket. 

“What are you-” Catra doesn’t get to finish her sentence before a red jacket is shoved into her chest, she regards it with a raised brow. “Won’t you get cold?” She asks. 

“Nope, since I became She-Ra I don’t really get cold.” Adora shrugs and Catra takes the jacket hesitantly. 

“I wondered why you came to the Northern Reach in a tiara and a skirt.” Catra says examining the red jacket with some curiosity. “So you’re like a magical space heater, huh?” She asks, shoving her arms into the sleeves of the jacket. 

“Sure am.” Adora replies. She goes to her pack and pulls out the food she’d packed but hands Catra some of the clean water first - she was probably incredibly thirsty. “Before you go you should eat and rest.” Adora says and maybe part of the reason she was saying this was because she wanted to spend more time with Catra before she left but another part was that Catra really should do those things. 

Catra zips the jacket up and gives Adora a look but Adora is too distracted by the fact that Catra was wearing her jacket - and she looked good in it. Catra seems to perceive Adora’s lingering gaze as a bad sign however. “This thing is so dumb, I should’ve known you were a princess with the size of these shoulder pads.” She lifts her arms up and Adora laughs. 

“It’s so comfy though right?” Adora questions handing Catra some of her food. Catra grumbles something but Adora’s pretty sure she’s right, there were other reasons why she didn’t opt for more Bright Moon rebellion looking clothes but, for the most part, her clothes were just super comfortable, why change that? 

It was night now, Adora knew that Bow and Glimmer would probably be worrying about where she was, and she did feel a little guilty about that, but she also didn’t want to leave Catra, even after patching her up, she wanted to stay, she didn’t want to leave Catra until she absolutely had to, plus, Catra looked ethereal in the night moon’s shine that Adora was having trouble processing any other thoughts other than Catra. Watching Catra stare at the food and sniff it was incredibly endearing and cute and Adora felt her heart swell and maybe Adora should be worried that she finds these small things so goddamn cute but she can’t think about that, or what it means, not when she’s gazing at her. 

Catra takes a bite of the sandwich Adora had given her and she watches as the feline’s pupils go wide and sparkly, like giant saucers, and she devours the sandwich in seconds. “You like?” Adora asks with a smirk. 

“ _Mumph mph mmmp?_ ” Adora laughs at that. 

“What?” She asks with the biggest smile ever because this was so cute. Catra swallows the food properly this time before she decides to speak. 

“What is this?” She asks. 

“Oh that,” Adora hands Catra the other half of her own sandwich because Adora wasn’t that hungry and seeing Catra so happy was the best thing that had happened in a long time. “it’s a tuna sandwich.” 

“Adora,” Catra says, placing her hands on the blonde’s shoulders, and how had she eaten that other half already? “you should have given me this from the start, I would have left the Horde in a heartbeat. I can’t believe I’ve been living on those awful rations my entire life.” 

“Oh so you’d leave the Horde for a tuna sandwich but not me?” Adora asks and maybe it should sound offended but Adora’s just joking and Catra can see that she is because she smirks at her. 

“If you tasted this good maybe I would have.” Catra retorts. 

“How do you know I don’t?” Adora snaps back quickly, without giving it much thought, but when she sees Catra stumble a little, and her flush slightly, she quickly realises what she had said. “Get your mind out of the gutter!” Adora yells blushing furiously. 

“I never said anything!” Catra defends and Adora rolls her eyes, rubbing the back of her neck. 

“I could hear your thoughts from here.” Catra laughs and Adora feels her heart lift again - Catra really did have the most amazing laugh. Catra collapses to the ground, letting out a long yawn. “Tired?” Adora questions. Catra looks at her, she really did look a lot better now, at least not like she was knocking at death’s door anyway, but Adora could tell she was tired just by how hooded her eyes were. “You should rest.” Adora says and Catra hesitates. 

“Will you stay the night?” She asks. Adora thinks about that. If she remains missing all night Bow and Glimmer would eat her alive when she got back for scaring them so bad but, like she said before, she doesn’t want to leave Catra until she absolutely has to. So she feels herself nodding and lying down in the soft grass beside Catra staring up at the starless sky. She wished Mara hadn’t put Etheria into a starless galaxy, she’d really have liked to be here under the stars with Catra, but maybe one day they could. 

Adora rolls on her side, back facing Catra, she wonders what will happen tomorrow, what she’s going to tell her friends, how she was going to explain everything but also when Catra would leave, why she couldn’t stay. Adora’s thoughts are interrupted by the feeling of someone wrapping their arms around her and Adora knows there’s only one other person here with her. “What are you doing?” Adora asks, tensing slightly. 

“You’re warm.” Catra responds, nuzzling into the back of Adora’s neck. Adora feels a spark run down the length of her spine at the closeness of it all but it’s… _nice_. She finds herself relaxing in Catra’s embrace. “Besides, I could hear you thinking Princess.” Catra says, though it comes out muffled since she’s kind of cuddling Adora. Adora doesn’t respond to that but feels Catra wrap her tail around her ankle and smiles. This is familiar, and warm and... and other words that Adora can’t seem to pin down in her head right now. Catra falls asleep almost instantly, her soft snores sound suspiciously like purring and Adora moves further back into her, trying to soak up everything, because come sunrise Catra would be gone and Adora wouldn’t know when she’d see her again. At least it wouldn’t be as enemies… she hoped. 

Catra was incredibly nice to cuddle. Adora felt safe wrapped up in Catra’s arms, she felt _happy_. She’d missed this too, sleeping with Catra. It takes a little longer than Catra but, eventually, Adora finds herself drifting off into a nice peaceful sleep, more comfortable than she’s ever been in a long time. When Adora awakes Catra is gone along with her pack, her jacket is draped over her like a blanket and she swears she still feels Catra’s embrace. It’s sad but hopeful all at once. 


	2. How Do You Sleep?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was too quiet for her liking. 
> 
> She makes it about five paces in before the silence is broken. "Hey Adora." Adora's head snaps to the open door of the balcony. She couldn't make her out entirely, though Adora already knew who it was, even if she didn’t from the greeting alone, the blue and golden eyes, bright even in the dark, were a dead give away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The title is inspired by the song How Do You Sleep by Sam Smith (I love him) I made a playlist for Catradora in general, I also listened to it a great deal while writing, you can check it out here if you like: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4oCR6hY7AUQA3sY98tMiyJ More notes will be at the end but I would like to say thank you to everyone who commented, left kudos etc, it means a lot that people actually wanted to read my work! Anyway, hopefully you enjoy this installment.

Adora retreated back to her room one night feeling exhausted, she had every intention of collapsing onto her bed and closing her eyes to pass out. Except when she opens the door to her room she's hit by a gentle breeze that isn't precisely unwelcoming, since it was a warm summer's night, but it was slightly confusing since Adora was sure she hadn’t left her balcony door open. Adora closes the doors to her room and cautiously makes her way inside. 

It was too quiet for her liking. 

She makes it about five paces in before the silence is broken. "Hey Adora." Adora's head snaps to the open door of the balcony. She couldn't make her out entirely, though Adora already knew who it was, even if she didn’t from the greeting alone, the blue and golden eyes, bright even in the dark, were a dead give away. Adora inches closer and sees that Catra was sitting on the balcony, her back against the wall of the castle but her body perched precariously on the railing, her tail hung down, swaying every so often. Catra looked incredibly relaxed, maybe a little ridiculously so, she might be balanced on the most precarious edge which could lead to her untimely death if she wasn't careful but, weirdly, Catra always liked balancing on edges. 

"Catra." Adora says. She’s happy to see her, of course, she’s just caught off guard a little. Catra leaps down from the railing, making no sound at all as she walks into Adora's room, her tail wrapping around Adora's hand to follow her. Adora smiles at the familiar touch turning to follow Catra into the room. "What are you doing here?" Adora asks.

"What? Not happy to see me Princess?" Catra asks, planting her hands on her hips, she turns to face Adora with a small smirk. Her scar on her eye had healed, it's still obviously quite new but it looks far better than when Adora had last seen it - she was glad Catra hadn't died from infection, clearly, she’d taken Adora's advice to heart. Catra's outfit had also gone through a significant change, she must have gotten rid of her Horde red uniform because now she wore similar looking clothes of white and blue, though she had a red cloak over the top, similar in style to the one Bow had put on Adora when she had gone to Thaymor. 

"Extremely happy." Adora admits, which seems to fluster Catra a little bringing Adora at least some satisfaction. "I'm just surprised." Adora was also resisting the urge to throw her arms around Catra and give her a bone crushing hug. She hadn't stopped thinking about Catra since that night in the Whispering Woods, truth be told, she hadn't stopped thinking about Catra since she joined the Rebellion all those months ago, closer to a year now, maybe more. 

"So," Adora says, watching Catra who was examining her room with curiosity, her hand trailing over various objects she found interesting. "you came back." Adora states. 

"Don’t think this means I'm joining your dumb Rebellion," Catra retorts, bringing a frown to Adora's face. "I have plans." 

"Oh," Adora's stomach swoops uncomfortably, she had hoped that the next time she saw Catra she'd be ready to join the Rebellion, to admit the Horde was evil and needed to be stopped, but things were never that simple were they. "evil plans?" Adora questions. It’s half joking, half anxiousness, she didn't want to be on opposite sides of a war with Catra again. 

Catra glances over her shoulder, smirking at her, flashing her canines a little. "You assume they're evil?" Catra asks and her tone is teasing but Adora can't help but feel a little frustrated. She didn't know where Catra stood and she desperately needed to know because she can't stop thinking about it, about  _ Catra _ , she gets all warm and fuzzy and Adora doesn’t think she's strong enough to say goodbye to Catra again, to fight her again, so she  _ needs  _ to know. 

"Catra." Adora gives her a scowl in annoyance. 

"Don't get your tiara in a twist Princess," Catra responds smoothly, she comes towards Adora now, abandoning her curiosity in favour of something more familiar. "I'll tell you in a second." 

"A second? Seriously?" Adora crosses her arms over her chest, widening her stance into one of disapproval, Catra simply rolls her eyes at her. "Why are you here Catra? If it's not to join the Rebellion then I have to assume you have some ulterior motive. Are you here to hurt me? To steal the Sword of Protection? Maybe here to attack my friends again, or, or, attack Bright Moon? The Queen-" 

" _ Shh _ ." Catra cuts off Adora's senseless rambling. The blonde's mouth snaps shut because Catra is staring at her in a way that Adora can't quite place, it’s familiar but new at the same time, and she doesn’t know why but she wants Catra to keep looking at her like that. "I want to try something new." Adora gulps at those words, especially when Catra takes a tiny step forward, now they're in each others space, Adora can feel Catra's breath tickle her nose they're so close. Adora doesn't know what exactly Catra means by something new, it makes her stomach do endless flips, the last time Catra had said something like that had been right before she’d infected She-Ra with a murder virus, it doesn't help that Catra is so close that Adora can smell her, she smells faintly of smoke, like she'd been resting by a fire recently, she smells like the woods, like her mane and fur had retained the scent of whatever adventures she’d been on, it's an intoxicatingly earthly smell and part of Adora just wants to bury her head in Catra and lose herself in the scent but she's certain that Catra is staring at her lips, and Adora at her’s, and the atmosphere is so thick with  _ something  _ that she can't quite place but it's there and there's no escaping it. 

It’s interrupted by an airy laugh that slips past Catra's delicate lips and Adora finds herself smiling at the familiar sound - she’d missed that laugh, Catra really had the most amazing laugh. "Stop over thinking Adora." But, decidedly, that does not help. There’s a way that Catra says her name that just makes Adora's brain go haywire, especially when the feline reaches up and cups her jawbone with her warm hand and, oh, there’s that atmosphere again. It’s thick and crackling with electricity and Adora notices that Catra's tail is swaying gently and slowly like it did when she was content and resolute in whatever she was about to do. Adora gulps again, she feels as though she’s sweating, or shaking, or maybe both -  _ definitely both _ \- she’s been close to Catra hundreds of times, this was no different… except it was! Because nothing has ever felt this charged before. Adora feels like she might combust just from the simple cheek touch. 

Then Catra is leaning in, slowly enough for Adora to panic but also giving the blonde a chance to stop what she was about to do but, despite the anxious mess Adora is, she doesn’t want to stop this, in fact, she thinks maybe she’s wanted this for a long time now, her eyes close instinctively and then she feels Catra's lips land softly on her own. At first, it's a little awkward. Adora is tense, she’s hyper aware of everything, and even Catra seems tensed beneath her hands but then something just clicks in place and Adora melts into the kiss, her muscles relaxing, her hands go to the small of Catra's back pulling her harder against her body and she feels Catra's tail wrap around her waist so they were practically flush together. 

The kiss evolves from the awkward pressing of mouths to a more soft, gentle, exploration that leaves tingles not just on Adora's lips but all over her body. Catra is being extremely gentle, which Adora hadn’t seen her be for a long time. After Adora defected their exchanges had been painful, hurtful, rough,  _ fighting _ , before that though, Catra had always been gentle, even when she pounced on her. That's when Adora hears some kind of rumbling and realises, with some satisfaction, Catra is  _ purring  _ \- at least Adora wasn’t alone in feeling this feeling. 

The purring encourages Adora to press harder, enticing a small gasp from Catra, momentarily interrupting the purring, this just felt right, Adora couldn't believe they'd been best friends since they were kids and not once had they ever done this. It was amazing! Catra gently bites Adora's bottom lip, sending shivers down Adora's spine as she puts some distance between them, it's not that much, just enough for them to have a little breather and gather themselves. "I've wanted to do that forever." Catra confesses quietly and softly, almost like she was embarrassed and, if Adora knows Catra, and she does, she probably was slightly embarrassed by the confession. 

"Me too." And maybe Adora didn’t realise until she had felt Catra's soft lips on her own but she  _ had  _ wanted to do that forever. "Bed?" Adora asks, feeling warm and fuzzy, like she was up in the clouds if she was being honest. Catra raises a brow, creating a little more space between them as Catra stares into the ocean blue of Adora’s eyes. 

"That's a little presumptuous." Catra says smoothly. It takes a moment for Adora to realise what exactly Catra was getting at. She flushes at the insinuation, beginning to splutter words in her sudden nervous energy. 

"I didn’t- that's not- I just meant-" Catra chuckles, releasing Adora and stepping towards the bed. Adora huffs, she’s sure Catra enjoyed teasing her like that. "I meant, you must be exhausted." 

"You're exhausted." Catra responds, she's teasing, a little, but Adora also detects a tone of slight concern. Catra sits down on Adora'a bed, extending her hands behind her back so she was leaning back on them, she crosses her legs and takes in Adora's room fully now. "This place is insufferably bright, how do you not get constant headaches?" Adora chuckles, crossing the room to come sit beside Catra. 

"You get used to it." Adora shrugs. It had taken some getting used to, in fact, Adora still wasn’t fully adjusted, as it turned out, old habits die hard, but Glimmer and Bow had done everything in their power to make Adora feel comfortable and that had been enough for her. 

Catra hums in thought, her tail carelessly swaying as she does. Adora turns her head to examine the girl, her stomach doing flips at the sight of her, Catra had only been gone a few months but she'd grown, blossomed even, in that small space of time: her jawline seemed sharper, her features more defined, she’d definitely given herself a haircut at some point because Adora could see that it wasn't as wild as usual and her blue and golden eyes seemed more bright, sparkling with thought, Catra had always been smart. They're growing up, Adora realises. And yet all Adora can really think about is kissing Catra and how much she wants to do that again. 

"You're staring." Catra states, breaking the easy silence and startling Adora a little. She’s smirking, which is annoying because it seems to scream to Adora that Catra knew exactly what she was thinking about. 

"I missed you." Adora says, bumping her shoulder against Catra's, ignoring how painfully remormisance that sentence is of the time they'd been in the Crystal Castle, she was also trying to distract herself from thinking about grabbing Catra's cloak and pulling her into a searing kiss. Catra rolls her eyes at the gesture, turning to face Adora who was giving her the most sparkly eyed look she could. Adora couldn't help it, when she looked at Catra she felt a pounding in her chest, her palms felt sweaty and her face couldn't be trusted because she was sure she looked like a love sick puppy. 

Adora smirks when she catches Catra's eyes drifting down to her lips and the charged atmosphere becomes thicker. "I didn’t miss you." Catra replies, folding her arms over her chest and looking away from Adora. She can tell that Catra is only being sarcastic. Adora gets a wild idea. 

"Come on Catra," Adora whines, she sounds a little like a petulant child but she doesn't much care. "you missed me, admit it." 

"I did not!" She protests and Adora pounces on her. It’s usually the other way around but Adora felt especially giddy and excitable she couldn’t help it. 

"You like me!" Adora yells, smiling when Catra lets out a giggle at the fact Adora was tickling her. They wrestle for a moment, Adora, with her bigger muscles, winning over the skinny feline; suddenly they’re kids again, back in their bunk in the Horde, play fighting. 

"I don't like you!" Catra protests, placing her hands on Adora's waist and attempting to flip their positions but Adora had always been physically stronger. 

"Admit it!" Adora presses. She’s relentless in her tickling and Catra melts into a fit of giggles, squirming under Adora's fingers, her tail is swishing vigorously, showing how happy she was and Adora was smiling so widely her face hurt. 

"Adora… stop… it...  _ now _ !" Catra breathes between giggles and, because Adora could see she was close to tears, she ceases her tickling. She crouches so she’s inches away from Catra's face, staring into her eyes. Something about this stirs something in Adora, seeing Catra beneath her in such a way, seeing her hair tousled from their brief wrestling match and her taking deep breaths to try and regain some composure, it stirs something and Adora feels her cheeks warming at the feeling. 

"Fine," Catra huffs, blowing a strand of her hair that had fallen beneath her mask. "I guess I like you a little." Adora absolutely beams when she hears those words. Her eyes flit to Catra's lips and Adora finds herself biting her own. 

"Hey Catra," Adora says and Catra hums distracted by something, her eyes were intently staring at Adora. "I want-" She stutters a little, feeling Catra's hand on her waist which was holding her steadily above the feline. "Can we do that thing again?" Adora asks sheepishly. Catra looks her in the eyes, her mismatched pair sparkle with something - Adora believes it’s fondness - and she’s smiling softly, Catra seems just as happy as Adora feels which is a good feeling, they haven't been this in sync with one another for a long time and it's a nice feeling, part of Adora feels like she’s come home, like she’s whole again, with Catra gone she’d felt content but there had always been _ something  _ missing in her time with the Rebellion and now Adora knew what that something was. 

"You can just say you want to kiss me dummy." Catra replies smoothly and Adora huffs in annoyance. 

"Fine," Adora responds, grabbing Catra by her cloak, she was about to fulfill her desire she’d had before. "I want to kiss you." Adora says before she pulls Catra into a searing kiss. Catra let's out a  _ 'mmph!' _ in sudden surprise at the action, causing Adora to smile into the kiss but she’s far too wrapped up in the feeling of Catra's lips against her own to want to pull away to tell her how cute that was. 

This kiss is a little different than their last one, where that one had been tender and gentle this one is a little more desperate, more urgent, Adora is hyper aware of the fact that Catra is effectively pinned beneath her, that she has full control over this kiss, and she’s also aware of Catra's hands on her waist, her thumbs are gently moving in circles sending shivers all through Adora, the touching is almost too much to bare and also not enough all at once. This kiss is hotter, the heat is intoxicating, Adora feels like she might be burning, in fact, it feels like when she becomes She-Ra, an all consuming fire but a good one, a powerful one, one that leaves her glowing after. She presses harder and is rewarded with a moan of approval from the woman. Adora still has Catra's cloak in her fist, she’s effectively holding Catra off of the bed. 

Adora breaks away and smiles when she notices Catra chase after her lips. Catra opens her eyes, her lips forming into a pout, it’s impossibly cute, her pupils are blown and sparkly and Adora wants to kiss her more but their lips are already swollen, plus they have plenty more time to do that, something else is nagging at Adora and right now she holds all the power with Catra below her looking like that. So she releases the feline, grinning as Catra grunts at hitting the bed below her. "So," Adora says slowly, purposely, Catra seems to snap out of her little daze, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. "your plans? Did they involve kissing me?" 

"Absolutely," Catra replies without missing a beat and part of Adora thinks she kind of means that but she can also tell Catra's about to say some smartass comment because she has that smirk she does. "my plan was to seduce you and then take you out in your sleep." Adora shoves her and Catra snickers at her, moving one of her hands from Adora's waist to the small of her back, her claws running up and down her spine causing the blonde to shudder. 

"You're not funny." Adora deadpans, giving Catra a scowl though she’s not sure it comes across as menacing as she was going for considering she had tingles running up and down her spine and she just couldn't muster that menacing scowl in this position. 

"I think I'm hilarious." Catra says sitting up, she moves her other hand and wraps her arms around Adora so they were kind of in a sitting cuddle, Adora moves her legs so they're around Catra's waist and loops her arms around her neck. "You really want to know?" Catra questions raising a brow and Adora nods. "You're not going to like it..." Adora's stomach does that thing again, she’s pretty sure its apprehension, nerves, worry, maybe even dread, if Catra wasn’t joining the Rebellion, if she had plans, then what exactly was she doing? 

"Ever since we were kids, I always thought one day… one day you and I would rule the Horde together." Catra says, her arms tightening and Adora's eyes soften at the confession a sad sigh escaping her lips. 

"Catra..." Adora doesn’t know what to say really. That obviously was never going to happen now. 

"No, it's okay, I've… I've made my peace with that never happening," Catra reassures, bumping her nose against Adora's, the incredibly soft gesture makes Adora's heart swell in her chest. "Hordak is... he’s not of our world, part of me thinks he’s never going to die, not naturally anyway, and he… what he did to me Adora." Catra’s whole body tenses, her eyes screwing closed before she reopens them, they're full of rage, of anger, Adora knows because she’s seen that look before directed at herself. "I have to show him he made a mistake, I'm going to take him out." 

"Catra," Adora shakes her head in disbelief. "that's a suicide mission at best." Catra snorts. 

"What is it at worst?" 

"You know what I mean!" 

"What's worse than dying?" 

"I don't know!" Adora yells. "Torture? Being sent to Beast Island? Then dying? I can't- it's a  _ suicide  _ mission." 

"I have friends in the Horde," Catra defends. "Scorpia, Entrapta, my squad, Rogelio, Lonnie and, hell, even Kyle. I know I can do this." Catra has that steel in her eyes, the one she gets when there's no changing her mind, when she has a plan of attack and, Adora has to admit, she is awfully good at executing her plans but it's too risky, isn't it? Sending Catra in to the Horde to take down Hordak… without Adora? Without support? It makes Adora's heart beat out of her chest in wild worry. 

"Say you do this," Adora says, putting aside how dry her mouth felt at the mere thought of sending Catra into the Fright Zone on her own to take down Hordak. "what do you plan to do after?" 

"After?" Catra asks, turning her head to the side. "I take control." 

"You've got to be kidding me," Adora separates herself, getting to her feet she paces back and forth, Catra follows her movements with her eyes. "after everything, after  _ this _ ," Adora gestures between herself and Catra. "you just want to go back to the Horde? You want to be enemies again?" 

"I never said that." Catra protests with a deep set frown. "You always expect the worst of me don’t you?" 

"What do you expect me to expect?" Adora yells, throwing her hands up in frustration. "You- I don’t know what this is Catra, what we are, but I I know I want more, I want to trust you, but I keep remembering you leaving me to die in the Crystal Castle, infecting me with a virus so I almost killed my friends-" 

"What does this have to do with my plans-?" Catra interrupts only for Adora to keep barreling through her sentence. 

"It has everything to do with it! You want to go back to the Horde, the  _ Evil  _ Horde, did you know that's what it's called? Take Hordak out and take control and then what? You carry on destroying Etheria like Hordak forcing the Rebellion, forcing  _ me _ , to fight you? Meaning more dirty tactics, more trust to be destroyed, there's a chance for us now, there really is, but if you go back there-" 

"Adora," Adora stops in her tracks when Catra, who she hadn’t even seen move, let alone get up off the bed and stand in front of her, plants her hands on her shoulders squeezing softly. "listen." She implores, her eyes are hard-set yet soft, earnest, and Adora, against her better judgement, shuts her mouth because she is willing to hear Catra out, maybe she owes her that much. "I infiltrate the Horde, I take Hordak out with the help of my friends, I take control," Adora bites her tongue and it takes all of her will to not interrupt and start another rant again. "then I change the Horde for the better. What were the Rebellion’s plans anyway? Defeat Hordak and then have thousands of P.O.W's, toss a bunch of kids into prisoner camps or something? Most, if not all, of the people in the Horde are  _ kids _ , they're conditioned to believe everything they're told, I mean, look at you Adora, all you wanted to be was a Force Captain, and maybe those guys have fought against the Rebellion but can we really blame them? It's all they've known, don’t they deserve a chance too?" 

"You want... to protect them?" Adora asks, she’s a little surprised if she’s honest, she never thought Catra cared about that stuff, about second chances, about helping other people, she only ever really cared about herself and, before everything went downhill, Adora. 

"Entrapta is coo-coo and Scorpia is obnoxiously too caring," Catra pulls a face and Adora allows herself a small chuckle at that. "but, I don’t know, somewhere along the way I started caring. Entrapta, I told her not to go into Hordak's lab, partly because I didn't want to get reamed by Hordak for allowing a Princess into his inner sanctum, but I also didn’t want him to harm her if he caught her, of course, that completely did  _ not  _ go the way I saw it going. And Scorpia," Catra groans, rubbing her eyes with the heels of her hands in frustration. "she grew on me! I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but she did okay, and I don’t want them to be prisoners of the Rebellion or under Hordak's terrible rule, everyone deserves that chance don’t they?" 

Adora smiles, she feels her heart grow ten sizes at the confessions Catra was making both in her words but also the silent confessions: she wanted to be better, she wanted to do better, to help more than just Scorpia and Entrapa but everyone in the Horde, she thought they were all worthy of that, something, honestly, even the Rebellion didn’t really believe because she had a point didn't she? The Rebellion painted the Horde as evil and that meant everyone in it was evil too, but Catra was right, they were raised by the Horde to be perfect soldiers, to not question anything, didn’t they deserve to be offered a choice to decide for themselves what they thought was right and wrong? Because, as much as the Rebellion would like to believe that the world is black and white, that the Horde is evil and the Rebellion is good, the world just doesn’t work like that. There are shades of grey everywhere and Catra was right - of course she was right. 

"You know," Adora says, relaxing so she was leaning against Catra more. "it’s painfully ironic that your two new best friends are Princesses right?" 

"Who said anything about best friends?" Catra scoffs screwing up her nose in a facial expression that is supposed to be one of disgust, Adora is sure, but it's kind of a failure because Adora knows Catra, she knows how much she cares about the pair, even if she can’t admit it herself, or see it. 

"Princesses that didn’t fit in with the Rebellion’s idea of what a Princess should be." Adora frowns at that. 

"What do you mean?" She questions and Catra sighs, turning to walk away, her tail brushes Adora's hand, silently beckoning her to follow after her. 

"Come on Adora, the Rebellion is far from perfect," Catra says sitting on the bed and Adora sits next to her so their shoulders are brushing. "Scorpia told me that the other Princesses, before the Horde showed up, treated her family bad, just because they were different, and look at me, I mean, I hardly believe they'd treat me kindly even if I hadn’t been Hordak's Second in Command, but at the Horde none of that matters, the only thing you're judged on is your ability as a soldier, no one is looked down on for how they look, how they behave, what status they are, who their parents are, none of that matters." Catra sighs. "Sure, the Horde has some pretty big flaws-" 

"Yeah, it’s evil." Adora chimes in and Catra shushes her with a flick of her tail. 

"But at least they don’t look down on people for being different." Catra retorts. 

"You're right," Adora admits because Catra is right, the Rebellion did have its flaws too, those who weren't Princesses, who didn’t have powers, were looked down on and maybe she hadn’t been around when Scorpia's family had been here but she could see the Rebellion treating them differently just because of their differences which was sad. 

"I want to make a Horde that retains that sentiment but, you know, isn't evil." Catra says. It's a simple statement in of itself but it's also kind of huge and Adora knew she was on board with it. Even if it was a wild gamble, and the idea of letting Catra go off and do this alone made Adora's stomach twist uncomfortably, it was worth the fight. "I can't abandon them." 

"Lonnie was so mad at me for leaving." Adora says, remembering how angry she’d been fighting with her in the prison holding cells. 

_ ‘ _ We  _ were your friends.’  _

Catra couldn't abandon them, like Adora had. 

"Hey," Catra bumps their shoulders together affectionately. "it sucked, I won’t lie, but, honestly, I don’t think this could have gone any other way." 

"What do you mean?" Adora asks. 

"You're She-Ra," Catra sounds displeased when she says that. Adora knows it's hard for Catra to accept Adora is She-Ra, they're a package deal, one and the same, she knows Catra views them as two entirely different entities, and that's kind of true too, but the fact remains that without Adora there is no She-Ra. They are one. "it was your destiny to find that sword, to bring balance to Etheria, you didn’t have a choice, you couldn't come back to the Horde after finding that stupid sword, what stung the most was that you joined your merry band of rebels and abandoned us."  _ Me _ . It goes unsaid but Adora hears it all the same. 

"You always said I was kind of dumb." Adora says leaning her head against Catra's soft mane. 

"All brawn no brain," Catra responds, drawing a breath of a laugh from Adora. "Don’t get me wrong, the muscles, they really work for me, but you leap before you think, you don’t think about the consequences of leaving, or how much it’d hurt us, your friends, and how much that hurt can… can make you do things you never wanted to do and that you regret with all of your heart." Somehow they'd circled back to this topic. Adora looks up to see Catra's eyes were watering, she had her hands in fists in her lap, she really looked full of sorrow, like she wholly regretted her actions, at least those that had hurt Adora.

"I said I was sorry for leaving." Adora mumbles and Catra sighs. 

"I know." There’s no venom behind those words, just acceptance. They'd retraced this path many times in the past, there was no need to drag up old painful memories again. "I never said I was sorry for what I did though." 

"Are you sorry?" Adora asks. She doesn’t mean for it to be an antagonising question, just one of complete curiosity and sincerity because, truly, she didn’t know how Catra felt about her past actions. 

"I don’t know Adora," Catra admits and she looks at Adora then, releasing her hands from fists she seems to relax ever so slightly, though her eyes still appear glassy with unshed tears. "I was so hurt when you left and I let my anger and bitterness get the better of me, I've never been good at controlling my anger but I can see where I went too far. There was a horrible moment I thought I'd killed you in that dumb castle and when I saw you at Bright Moon, with Glitter and Arrow," Adora rolls her eyes at Catra purposely not calling Bow and Glimmer by their names. "for a moment I was relieved, and then angry again, and it's so easy to hurt you when you're She-Ra. I don’t want to do that anymore." 

"Thank the Stars," Adora jokes and Catra huffs at the statement. "I'm not going to lie, there’s a lot of stuff that we need to fix but, I’m willing to try if you are?" 

"I'm here aren’t I?" Catra questions. 

They hold one anothers gazes before Catra flops unceremoniously backwards onto the bed, letting out the most dramatic groan Adora has ever heard her do, Adora follows suit, falling backwards so she was lying beside Catra. "I'm exhausted." Catra says while stretching out. Adora can't help the smile that crosses her lips as she watches the cat girl arch her back, stretching all the way down to the tip of her tail before curling it around herself. "Climbing this castle took it out of me, what's with this place anyway? Why is it so obnoxiously big?" Adora turns so her front is pushed against Catra's side and the feline turns her head to look at Adora. 

Adora ignores the question and instead places her hand on Catra's cheek, trailing her hand along her jawline until she reaches the end of her mask, it had been so long since Adora had seen her out of that mask, part of Adora wondered about its significance, it had been given to Catra by Shadow Weaver, under Hordak's instruction, when she’d been big enough that it fit her but Shadow Weaver hadn’t made any effort to explain what exactly the mask was, just that it was a lost artifact that belonged to Catra's race: The Magicats. There was so much that they still didn’t know, so much that they could learn together. 

Adora's hand continues, she grins as she sees Catra close her eyes as she nears the spot she had intended to go to all along, the one right behind Catra's ear. She scratches the spot and immediately Catra begins purring, melting at the touch, she leans into Adora's hand until she’s a purring mess, it’s so loud that if anyone passed by her door right now they'd have some serious questions about what exactly Adora was doing but Adora can't bring herself to care, seeing Catra so unabashedly happy was exhilarating. Adora chuckles, which seems to bring some of Catra's senses back because she peeks open one of her eyes before she swats Adora's hand away. 

"Shadow Weaver is still a threat." Catra says, sufficiently changing the topic completely. 

"Yeah," Adora sighs. "I've been feeling watched, it feels like when I went to Mystacor with Glimmer and Bow right before Shadow Weaver attacked." 

"Well that's creepy," Catra comments, looking around the room. "You don't have that feeling right now do you? I don’t need the old witch spying on this." Catra gestures between them. Adora smirks in amusement, the thought of Shadow Weaver seeing this was creepy but also Adora felt it’d be kind of hilarious. Despite her best efforts, Shadow Weaver had been unable to prevent the inevitable, because it was inevitable that Catra and herself would come back together again, maybe she hadn’t expected this per se, but it was always inevitable, at least, Adora thought so. 

"Let's forget about that right now and sleep." Adora suggests because she didn’t feel like talking about Shadow Weaver right now, her earlier exhaustion had come back now and all she wanted to do was cuddle with Catra and get a good night’s rest. Adora always seemed to sleep so much better with Catra. 

Catra nods in affirmation and sits up, pulling her cloak gracefully over her head, it leaves her hair a little ruffled but adorable all the same. Adora is a lot less graceful, she fumbles with her boots, struggling to pull them loose, which draws an amused giggle from Catra. Adora scowls at her in mock annoyance. "You know you should really wear shoes, they protect your feet." Catra snorts. 

"Yeah, you're making a solid case there." She says gesturing to Adora who was yanking on her boot to free her foot. Adora makes a sound of triumph as soon as she manages to pull her boot from her foot and Catra rolls her eyes at her dorky behaviour. She then unties her belt, tossing it somewhere on her floor and takes her classic red jacket off throwing it in a pile. "It’s weird you still wear your Horde uniform, you know that right?" Catra questions, raising an eyebrow. Adora ignores her comment, making herself comfortable by moving up the bed under the covers so she was beside Catra. 

"I am weird." Adora responds, snuggling up to Catra by wrapping her arms around her waist. They were side by side, face to face, and it exhilarated Adora to no end. Catra makes a face of confusion and slips her hand under Adora's pillow and pulls out the dagger that the blonde had stashed there. Catra holds it up with a knowing look and Adora shrugs. "Old habits die hard." Catra grins. 

"Clearly." And Adora knew she wasn’t just talking about the dagger under her pillow, or the fact that Adora still wore her Horde Uniform, it was also cuddling Catra; the way they interacted with one another was still a habit that Adora didn’t know how to break. Catra stashed the dagger back and moves closer to Adora, pulling them so Adora was nestled in Catra's chest and the feline had her chin resting atop Adora's head, Adora has never felt more comfortable and safe then being held by Catra while slowly drifting off to sleep, except maybe when they were in the Horde, with Catra curled up at her feet, she always felt protected, this was better however, side by side, being in Catra's arms, it felt like a perfect metaphor showing how their relationship had evolved into this. 

Adora slips into a peaceful sleep almost immediately and she swears the last thing she feels are soft lips pressed to her forehead. 

**_//_ **

When Adora awakes she’s no longer in her safe and warm cocoon, she sits up abruptly at the absence, she couldn't bear it if Catra had left without saying goodbye, except, her frantic movement causes a certain someone to chuckle and Adora turns her head to see Catra lying on her side, she’s close to the edge of the bed, if she leaned backwards she’d probably fall. 

"Morning Princess." Catra purrs and suddenly Adora understood Bow and Glimmer's description of Catra at their war table meeting, Catra did have a certain purr to her voice whenever she was teasing. "Looking for someone?" She questions with a smug grin. Adora grumbles before flopping back into her bed. "You're a terrible sleeper still." Catra comments, her eyes trailing lazily over Adora. Adora turns her head to look at the woman smiling widely. 

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Adora shrugs and Catra rolls her eyes. 

"You kicked me a lot more when I was down there I admit but you still got me good a couple times,” Catra says. “not to mention the snoring-” Adora grabs her pillow from behind her head and hits Catra who loses her balance and falls off the edge of the bed but she was laughing. Adora grins like a goofy idiot at the sound, and also the fact that she’d been able to catch Catra so off guard she’d actually fallen, she was usually so well balanced. 

Catra’s head pops up from beside the bed, she looks disheveled, in a good night’s sleep kind of way, her hair is sticking up in odd places and her clothes are a little wrinkled but she looks relaxed,  _ happy _ , and that warms Adora right to her core. “Is that the thank you I get for sticking around?” She questions. Adora ignores her and instead grabs her by the collar of her shirt, pulling her up off of the ground and back onto the bed with ease. Catra blushes a little and Adora raises a brow in question, she doesn’t get an answer but she does see Catra eyeing her bicep which makes Adora smirk in pride. 

“Thank you,” Adora says, drawing Catra’s attention back to her and not her bicep. “for staying.” Adora clarifies, bringing her hand up to brush back a stray strand of curly hair. Catra’s pupils dilate at the gesture, her mouth falling open slightly as though she were about to say something but she forgot half way from opening her mouth. 

“Adora,” She whispers and Adora can see her hesitate, like she isn’t certain she should say her next words, before she looks away and scoffs. “Yeah, well, where else would I go?” Adora frowns, she knows that wasn’t what Catra wanted to say, but she doesn’t think bringing that up would be productive - something she did know about Catra was forcing her to talk about something she doesn’t want to talk about could only lead to arguments and Adora doesn’t want to argue. Adora reaches out instead, her hand absently gently tracing over the scar that ran down Catra’s face and the feline sighs, nuzzling into the gentle touch. 

“I wish you didn’t have to go back there alone.” Adora says, feeling her heart contract painfully. Truthfully, she didn’t want to abandon Catra - never again. 

“I’m not alone.” Catra assures but that doesn’t make Adora feel better. She wants to go, ever since she found the Sword of Protection, ever since She-Ra, Adora has never felt like she should return to the Fright Zone, not even to take Hordak out, the only exception being to save Glimmer from Shadow Weaver, and while maybe she should have done that for Catra before she could do that now, she could go with Catra, help her take down the Horde, but Adora knew that wasn’t smart. Catra was fast, she was hard to spot, she could get around the Fright Zone without being spotted very easily, Adora on the other hand would be far easier to spot, she wasn’t exactly the most stealthy of soldiers, she’d much rather punch her way through such things, if Adora went she’d mess the whole plan up, Catra would be unable to do what she needed to do, what she  _ wanted  _ to do. 

Catra was going to be the one to take Hordak out, not Adora, she’d certainly come far from being the ‘lazy’ cadet Shadow Weaver had painted her as being. Adora had always known Catra was far more skilled than anyone gave her credit for, they just never noticed for some reason. Adora had noticed and when she left the Horde others noticed, Hordak among others, Adora had never intended for that to happen, for Catra to be in her shadow, Catra had always said she didn’t care, she had believed one day that they’d be in charge of the Horde, together, that they’d change it for the better, as equals, and maybe this was a roundabout way of doing it but if Catra took over the Horde and became allies with the Rebellion they would be equals, they could create a better future for everyone, one that they had craved when they were both cadets. As equals, Catra could never be in Adora’s shadow ever again. 

“There’s something I want to tell you.” Adora says, her heart feels painful in her chest, her palms are a little sweaty and she can hear her heartbeat in her ears. Catra places her hand over Adora’s and moves closer, turning Adora over onto her back. Catra cups her cheek with her hand, hovering above Adora with a deep expression that Adora couldn’t quite place, which is weird, Adora knows everything about Catra, yet she can’t read this expression, it’s frustrating to say the least. 

“I know,” She replies, lowering her face so she was inches away from Adora’s. 

“You don’t want me to say it?” Adora asks because, despite her being unable to read Catra sometimes, Adora is an open damn book, her eyes give everything away, she can’t help it, Adora’s always been like that. 

“Not yet.” Catra says in a whisper but she’s so close Adora can feel the words on her lips. 

“Okay,” Adora concedes but it doesn’t change the way that she feels, and she doesn’t understand why Catra doesn’t want to hear the confession, but they’ve come so far and Adora doesn’t feel like bulldozering over all their progress, even if it hurts her heart when she quells the words that were lingering on her tongue and she swallows hard to dispel them. “Please be careful.” Adora pleads. 

Catra doesn’t respond, she instead lowers her lips to Adora’s in their softest kiss yet. There’s no awkwardness anymore, they have a groove now, even after only a few kisses, but they were both quick learners. This kiss is the softest kiss they’ve shared yet which, out of the few they’d had last night, they haven’t exactly had that many, but still, something about this kiss is soft, like they’re communicating unspoken feelings, tender and gentle feelings, that they can’t yet express into words. Not yet. Adora understood now, they could confess such things later. The kiss was like a summer’s day, warm and beautiful and Adora desperately didn’t want it to end because she knew what came next and she didn’t want to say goodbye to Catra, not yet, not ever really. 

Catra is the first to pull away and Adora chases after her lips hoping to keep it going. When she doesn’t feel Catra’s lips she blinks open her eyes, sucking in a breath of amazement at the sight that greets her. Somewhere along the way Catra had moved so she was sitting on Adora’s stomach, the morning moonrise highlighted Catra in an ethereal light, she looked like a goddess, kind of like the shine She-Ra had, beautiful against the light, absolutely breathtaking, it was still strange to see Catra in blue and white and not her Horde uniform, something about Adora still being in Horde uniform and Catra not was ironic but Adora couldn’t process any other feeling or thought other than Catra at the moment. 

“I have to go.” Catra says but she doesn’t look like she means it. She wants to stay, which sedates the stinging Adora felt in her chest. Adora sits up too, and plants her hands on Catra’s hips, it wasn’t just the fact that Catra had to leave in order to begin her crazy plan to take Hordak out, and take the Horde over, but Adora knew, and Catra too probably, that Glimmer would be waking soon to bring her another mission along with Bow - well, Bow would be waking soon and dragging Gimmer to come deliver the new mission - which meant Catra couldn’t be here, Adora doesn’t even want to think about how Gimmer would react to seeing her and Catra in such a… position: kissing, cuddling, Adora had her work cut out trying to convince the Rebellion of Catra’s new good intentions without them thinking Catra had seduced her like some femme fatale - she knew Glimmer eppecially would be the toughest to crack, Bow always had unbridled optomism and hope in people. 

“Again,” Adora says, placing a soft kiss to Catra’s nose which causes her to blush. “please be careful.” 

“No promises.” Catra says with a grin before she pushes Adora backwards so she lands on her mattress with a soft  _ ‘oof’  _ in surprise. Catra leaps to her feet, picking up her cloak that she’d removed the other night. She pulls it over her head, before running her claws through her hair to straighten it out, she also attempts to straighten her clothes underneath the cloak, but they’re wrinkled for sure, still, she doesn’t look quite as fluffy as when she’d first awoken. 

She heads towards the balcony and Adora gets to her feet, tripping over the boots she’d kicked off the previous night but managing to keep her footing. She follows Catra to the balcony. They exit out onto it together, Catra jumps up onto the railing and Adora feels her heart jump out of her chest, not just at how absurdly dangerous that is, but also at the fact that this was it: this was goodbye. “When will I see you again?” Adora asks because she wants to drag this out for as long as she can. Catra shrugs, stretching her limbs out even while balancing on a railing thousands of feet up from the ground, Adora feels like she might pass out at the thought. 

“I’ll get back into contact with you as soon as possible,” Catra goes into her pocket and pulls something small from it. “here.” She opens her palm, extending it to Adora. Adora takes the object hesitantly and examines it. It takes her a moment to realise what it was: Catra’s Force Captain badge. This was really it. Catra had rejected the Horde, she was going to take Hordak down, she was Adora’s ally, Adora could scarcely believe it, she never would’ve thought they’d get here all those months ago. “Keep it with you,” Catra says softly. “I’ll be able to find you, wherever you are, so long as you want me to.” 

“Absolutely,” Adora says, clutching the badge to her heart. They hold one anothers gazes for a moment longer before Catra struts to the edge of the castle. 

“Bye Adora.” Catra says, looking back one last time before she leaps. Adora rushes forward, leaning out over the balcony to watch Catra go. She’s fine, of course she is, she makes quick work of the castle actually, which, maybe Adora should be concerned that it’s so easy to scale, but, well, Catra isn’t just anyone. 

“Bye Catra.” Adora whispers, her voice being carried by the wind. When Catra is out of her sight she retreats back to her bed, gripping the badge in her hand tightly and to her chest. “Come back to me.” Adora murmurs. She drifts off into a short slumber before she’s awoken by Glimmer a few minutes later for another Princess Mission. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I honestly feel like I could write more about this because I had so much fun with it but also season 3 drops in like 2 weeks and seeing the new trailer has me so pumped I'm sure I'll have a wave of inspiration after to write more one shots or more lengthy works after I've seen it. In the mean time feel free to follow me on twitter @catrasadoras and my tumblr @hawkesgarrett also if you like I make edits on instagram on @ajeditss. Again thank you all so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed and I look forward to reading your comments again! Sorry for any spelling and/or grammar mistakes!

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any spelling and/or grammar mistakes!


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